Cocoa Sustainability Report: Farmers trained in agricultural practices
The Barry Callebaut Group, one of the leading manufacturers of high quality chocolate and cocoa products, announces the publication of its Cocoa Sustainability Report 2013/14.
“With ongoing challenges in cocoa farming, we are focusing on helping farmers to improve their yields, in order to increase overall production and enhance their livelihoods, ” said Juergen Steinemann, CEO of the Barry Callebaut Group.
“In order to achieve this faster and with more impact, we implement and push the Cocoa Action plan of the World Cocoa Foundation. We need to make cocoa farming sustainable, and we will.”
The report shows that the future of the cocoa sector depends on the improvement of productivity on cocoa arms. In order to disseminate good agricultural practices to the many farmers spread cross the cocoa growing areas of Côte d’Ivoire, the company put in place a robust training infrastructure.
Our Cocoa Center of Excellence trains the trainers who teach good agricultural practices at the hundreds of farmer field schools. In addition, 23 model farms allow farmers to see best practices firsthand. During fiscal year 2013/14, 99,000 farmers were trained in good agricultural practices. These activities build on previous experiences of our Quality Partner Program and are aligned with Cocoa Action, the new industry strategy to improve farmer productivity.
The document explained good agricultural practices, simple solutions to improve the productivity of cocoa farmes, like tree pruning, preventing soil erosion, making compost, integrated pest management, intercropping and rejuvenating farms by replacing older trees.
On the other hand, the report announces that Barry Callebaut inaugurated its CocoaCenter of Excellence in Pacobo, Côte d’Ivoire, in July 2013. The center is at the top of the pyramid of knowledge about cocoa farming and taught 96 trainers and cooperative managers in its first year. The cocoa training curriculum includes modules on good agricultural practices, post-harvest management techniques, optimal use of inputs, crop diversification, farm rehabilitation, and grafting, as well as basic business skills.
Farmer field schools are training courses for cocoa farmers, bringing them knowledge about good agricultural practices that can help them increase their harvest, income, and livelihoods. A wide range of topics are covered, including good agricultural practices, environmental protection, certification, child labor, health and safety, and farm management. Typically farmer field schools are held about once a month for half a day, during the farming season.
The Cocoa Sustainability Report 2013/14 was guided by the AA1000 standard for sustainability reporting and was externally verified by the auditing organization Denkstatt GmbH.